A civilisation of Blacklight
by drich147
Summary: The Virus didn't die at Manhatten, nor could it be taken out. It only continued spreading, growing faster and further throughout the world. So how does a Blacklight infected Humanity deal with what lays in the stars?
1. Chapter 1

Random Plot bunny that may or may not pop into a full story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Prototype or Mass Effect.

(((P,ME)))

"_They call me a killer, a monster, a terrorist. I am all of these things."_

Alex Mercer.

(((P,ME)))

"So."

"What do you want Shepard."

"I think you know what I want."

"I've been wrong before. Enlighten me."

"Heh. About 23 hours ago, some shit got fucked up drastically. Around about the same time, we learned we weren't alone in the universe."

"Yes. What's your point? We all know what happened."

"The Galaxy just got a whole lot wider. That's my point. What do you think is going to happen?"

"I don't know, Shepard. It's not like literally everybody else has asked that question already."

"But it's so _interesting. _Aliens. Actual Aliens. Turians, Asari, Salarians, Quarians, Batarians, Elcor, Hanar. So many new things. So why aren't you excited?"

"Oh, I don't know Shepard, it may have something to do with the fact that the first on that list tried to _kill us_."

"They failed, literally nobody on our side died, it's not really a big problem."

"Do you think I didn't know that Shepard. We all know that, by virtue of what we are. They aren't like us. They are… frail. Mortal. Like we once were. Frankly, I'm not sure if our civilisation, if it could even be called such a thing, is ready for that."

"Oh?"

"Shepard, look at us. We are monsters. We kill, we evolve, we adapt, we consume. It defines our very existence. It's been like that since 2010, ever since the outbreak. It's 2160. Our way of existence has been like this for 150 years. Every world we settled, every asteroid we devoured in search of more, every Primal Walker fought, every Star ventured to and from, unchallenged and unchanged. And now, here we are; with a change we did not expect, brought by an enemy that is orders of magnitude weaker than us, one that does not know us, one that cannot understand us, . Tell me Shepard, what do you think will happen?"

"Dunno. But that is why it's so _interesting_, finding out what happens"

"Have I ever told you that you're insane, Shepard?"

"Multiple times, yes."

"Ah, good. I was wondering if I had slipped at some point."

(((P,ME)))

Councillor Tevos was not having a good day.

Her day started with something simple, but very annoying.

She didn't have any of favourite drink available, which, since she had been drinking it for nearly 5 decades, had done surprisingly well to mess up the start of her day.

It went from annoying to bad when she discovered her Omnitool had apparently decided to glitch out on her, overloading the damn tool and shocking her when she attempted to activate it.

Later, it went from bad to worse. After she had taken one of her replacement Omnitools, she learned that a Council meeting had been scheduled, and she had barely 30 minutes to prepare for it.

Thankfully she had prepared for such a thing, and already had set up everything she needed.

And then, after she had arrived, she discovered that she was early. The damned Omnitool had been set nearly an hour early, leaving her to wait an hour for Valern and Sparatus to arrive.

Though this had given her time to prepare her appearance, it still annoyed her greatly.

Finally, after greetings had been exchanged and pleasantries expressed, Sparatus had decided to bomb her day to death.

How? Simple.

"I'm sorry, could you please repeat that Sparatus, for a second, I had thought I had heard that one of your captains had discovered a new species. And decided to police them."

Sparatus' expression did not alleviate her fears. The Turian's normally passive (If somewhat annoyed) face was uncharacteristically grim.

"As much as I had hoped it wasn't true Tevos, you heard correctly. Captain Arkas witnessed an alien ship opening a Mass Relay and traversing it. In a moment of overzealousness, he ordered his patrol fleet through the Mass Relay, they continued to send transmissions up until where they stated that they were about to land forces on the planet, at which point… well, we don't know. We lost contact with the fleet. We still do not know what happened to them."

At this moment, Valern decided to ship in. "Interesting. Annoying as well. I've already sent STG forces to the Relay."

Tevos turned to him, deciding to ignore the fact that Valern already knew about this. "And?"

Valern stared back at Tevos. "Nothing. They did send probes, nothing has returned. Irritating."

"And worrying. We only received the transmissions a while after they sent them, without a Com-buoy for direct transmission, it took some time for the signals to propagate back to our space." Sparatus added.

Tevos felt her headache grow at that. "So what do we know?"

"Of what happened to the Fleet? Nothing. Of the Species? Little. All we know comes from the last remnants of the transmission" Sparatus pressed a few buttons on his Omnitool, sending a file to the Holo-projector in the centre of the room.

An image of a planet came up, though Tevos did not know of any planet that resembled anything like the one she saw before her.

The planet, at first glance, seemed desolate, a black orb that would have been hidden in space, had in not been in front of a gas giant. At a closer look, the planet could be seen to also possess small red lines and stripes in parts of it. An examination showed that the red parts almost seemed to be moving, writhing on the black mass in a way that frankly unnerved her.

A voice came through the speakers, and Tevos assumed it was Captain Arkas.

"_Send a transmission back to the Hierarchy, this planet is too strange. Mirak, what can you tell me?_"

"_Not much. Long ranged scans aren't showing anything, it seems that whatever it is that's on that planet is somehow scattering our scans, so I can't tell you anything. Though this planet is where the ship fled, I cannot find it again."_

"_If I may interject here, attaining a sample of that material could help jump ongoing space-stealth research ahead another decade. Just a note."_

"_Imran, now is not the time for scientific rants, we need to find the ship that broke our laws. Pilot, get us close to the planet and prepare to land on it, get the fleet ready to deploy on planet, I want to know wh-"_

A burst of static interrupted whatever it was that Arkas had been saying, though it quickly went silent afterwards.

Tevos frowned. There were few ways to block a shipside transmission, none of which came from a planet, short of only an extremely powerful EMP system to fry the transmitters themselves. Given that such installations were both large and extremely noticeable from a distance.

"That's all that came through the transmissions. So, in short, we don't know anything, we can't see anything and we have no idea what could possibly happen." Sparatus said.

"Worrying. Interesting. Must prepare for consequences. I assume you have already blockaded the Relay?" Valern asked.

"I have." Sparatus replied.

Tevos shook her head. "Perhaps we should send a diplomatic mission."

Sparatus turned back towards Tevos. "Frankly Tevos, I'm not sure if that's even safe. They could be slaughtered for all we know, though I hope they aren't like the Yahg. For now, we should wait to see what they do."

Sparatus did have a point, though Tevos still wanted to send diplomats, she wasn't willing to risk the lives of her people.

"So, what can we do?" She asked.

"For now, we blockade the Relay. If nothing happens, we can send diplomats." Sparatus said. "Valern, what about light lag observations?"

"Unreliable. The Mass Relay is a Primary Mass Relay, distance too massive for light lag to be used for thousands of years, the space beyond that system is unknown, so we cannot send ships to observe, we do not know how far they will get, and the transmissions will take too long to get back to us anyway." He spoke.

Tevos ignored Sparatus as he cursed, attempting to figure out something she could do. So far, she did not have any luck.

"There's nothing to do beyond watch and wait then?" She finally asked.

"No. Situation too volatile. Any military action could be viewed as furthered hostilities, may ignite a war."

The three Councillors shared a moment of silence, none liking the situation that the rash actions of one overzealous Captain had put them in.

Just how much worse could this situation get?

Tevos felt a shiver run down her spine, suddenly deciding she didn't want to know the answer.


	2. Chapter 2

First of all, I wanted to thank all of you for giving me encouragement.

Now, I wanted to get on to some important things for the storyline, before the first contact incident.

I was planning on having it revealed in parts, at the beginning of the story, like what you saw in the first part of the first chapter, between Shepard and the as of yet unnamed individual. It's going to be disjointed, parts of it showing you the viewpoint of Humanity and what happened in the old time, while other parts will be revealed through interactions in the story, as well as through other parts that come later on. It's my attempt at making something similar to the Web of Intrigue from the first game, something that I personally loved. It'll all come together in the end, don't you worry about that.

Now, onto the story.

(((P,ME)))

"_The stars should prepare themselves, for we are coming._"

- Unknown.

(((P,ME)))

"Do you remember the Outbreak, Shepard?"

"Now what kind of question is that? Of course I remember. What brought on this bit of nostalgia?"

"What we were talking about before, with our 'civilisation'. You remember how it was. Our peaceful lives, unaware of the horrors out there, unsuspecting that it would all come to a violent end."

"Yeah, I remember how it was. Back when we were all, what did you call it? Oh yes, mortal and frail. Do you regret it?"

"Of course I do Shepard. At the beginning, there were nearly 7 billion of us. At the end, a mere 1.4 million were still around. We lost several thousand in the chaos that came afterwards."

"Yes. Before we realised what we had become. Before we realised the reason we survived. Before we knew how to thrive again."

"Indeed. I remember when I first woke up, after I was infected by a Walker that wounded me. I remember waking up after I had come to terms with the fact that I would die. I remember my panic, my need to get out of there. I remember my surprise and my confusion as I ran away, faster than I could have ever dreamed of running before, jumping higher than buildings, falling off those building and being unhurt when I hit the ground. I remember the first time I fought walkers, a group of the things surrounding me with no escape. And I remember how quickly I killed them all with a few punches and kicks. I remember how I consumed the last walker in that group. I survived the next few days running off instinct. And then I met Him."

"Alex Mercer."

"Yes."

(((P,ME)))

Despite Tevos' ominous premonition the previous day, the situation of Relay 314 had not yet managed to devolve any further that it already had.

For that, Tevos was grateful.

Of course, that didn't mean that she, nor either of the other councillors for that matter, was relaxing.

Sparatus had already organized fleets to lock down their side of the Mass Relay, leaving the fleets stationed at the Mass Relay in charge of General Desolas Arterius and Admiral Velark Ardescat. Sparatus had also attended dozens of meetings with Primarchs and Admirals, attempting to outline plans and contingencies in case things went sour.

Valern had seen to allocating dozens of ships to the blockade, as well as requisitioning hundreds of probes and sensor systems for the system, keeping an eye over the system in case anything came up that the Turians couldn't already handle. Though the infuriating lack of intelligence they possessed on the other side of the Mass Relay had the effect of organising the Turians, it did not hold the same effect on the labyrinthine mess of political attachments and confusing ties that was the Salarian government, although it did serve to temporarily organize the Salarian Union as the possibility of open warfare with another space faring species became evident.

Tevos had spent her time convening with various Matriarchs of the Asari Republics, seeking the advice and thoughts of those more experienced than her in the matters of open warfare and violent First Contacts. As a result, Tevos had allocated a variety of Asari vessels to the blockade of Relay 314, with some being diplomatic vessels and the remainder being warships.

Though none of the councillors wanted war, all three were prepared for the worse.

Or, at least, they thought they were.

(((P,ME)))

"So what should we do about that fleet lying on the other side of the Mass Relay?"

"_Personally, I couldn't care less._"

"**You couldn't care about anything.**"

"_Indeed._"

"Children, please."

"**Funny.**"

"I try. Seriously though, what the hell are we going to do with that alien fleet?"

"_Honestly, I'd rather just sit back and let them make the first move._"

"Please, you know that they won't make a move without information, which, notably, we've been denying them."

"_I don't see how this is our problem._"

"Don't lie. You were among those who first 'met' the Turians."

"_So I consumed a couple of them, who cares?_"

"A couple? You consumed dozens."

"_I was a bit hungry. Besides, it got you the information you wanted didn't it?_"

"**Yes. The Hivemind is useful for that. But to answer the question, I propose we go and meet them.**"

"Oh? And your plan is?"

"**Simple. We send the Turians we captured back over to them. They'll never suspect a thing.**"

"Indeed. It's such a perfect plan. Except you're forgetting one thing, those 'captured Turians'? They've been consumed."

"**So put them back together again. Use the same atoms and molecules they were made out of, put their brains back and erase their memories of what happened. They won't notice that anything is wrong.**"

"_Ooh, devious. I like it. Hey, Shepard, we should totally do that._"

"You're missing something else. Their ships, you know; the ones we ate."

"**Eh, we could put them back together as well. It's not like any of us actually needs that mass after all.**"

"I've heard of worse plans."

"_Come on Shepard, let's do it! It'll be _hilarious."

"Bah. Does the rest of Humanity have any objections?"

"_**Such an obvious question. Can you guess the answer to that question Shepard?**_"

"Oh good, we're all in agreement then. This should be interesting."

"Yes. Interesting. You're insane Shepard."

"Aw. Still not getting over that from our last conversation?"

"No."

"I could be worse… I could be boring, like you."

"It's not my fault I like acting like a reasonable individual."

"Semantics."

"_I know that look on your face. What are you planning?_"

"**Does anybody object to me being the 'Representative' to them?**"

"You're planning on messing with them Rollfaec?"

"**Absolutely.**"

"_Dis gon b good._"

"You really need to stop butchering our language like that."

"_You seem to be missing the part that I really couldn't care less._"

(((P,ME)))

Admiral Velark Ardescat was currently, to put it simply, very, very annoyed.

Thanks to the actions of Captain Arkas, which, if he was to speak truthfully about, were extremely stupid bordering on a point of moronic, Velark had been pulled from his normal, if boring, duty of patrolling for slavers and fending off pirate attacks on the edge of the Attican Traverse.

While his previous duties were somewhat boring, they were also predictable, and more importantly, did not hold the possibility of open warfare with an unknown species that appeared to possess unknown and advanced technology.

Nonetheless, despite being placed as 1 of 2 Commanders in charge of the Turian portion of the fleet blockading Relay 314, he performed his job as was expected of a disciplined Turian.

"Admiral, General! There's a signal coming from the Mass Relay."

Velark snapped out of his musings and brought his attention to the sensor officer that had called out to him. Beside him, General Desolas Arterius also turned towards the officer.

Velark quickly spoke a command "Analyse it, find out what it is. Comms, send a message to the Council, Matriarch Vassela and Commander Tedril. I want them all to know what's happening."

The Officer nodded, quickly tapping away at his station.

"So, after nearly 2 days of absolutely nothing, we suddenly get a signal?" General Desolas' voice said.

Velark turned to Desolas. "Very suspicious indeed. I don't like it."

"Nor do I." He said.

"Commanders, we have identified the signal, and… the signal is coming from the Turian fleet that passed through the Relay." The Officer informed them.

Velark's eyes narrowed at that. "That can't be right. They have been missing for 2 days. Send a message to everyone, I want them ready for whatever happens. Charge all weapons, prepare to fire on my command."

"I guess this is the moment of truth."

"Indeed Desolas."

(((P,ME)))

The Mass Relay floated through space, the rings of monolithic machine that stood as an immortal memory of the Protheans mastery of Mass Effect physics revolving eternally around a glorious blue light in the centre of the Mass Relay, casually existing as a staple of life in the galaxy, a pillar that supported life in the galaxy.

How unfortunate that this Mass Relay in particular held something on the other side that could potentially begin a war.

The rings of the Mass Relay sped up ever so slightly, with the Mass Effect fields around the Mass Relay beginning to bend in preparation for taking a ship out of Mass transit. These acts did not go unnoticed by the fleet blockading the Mass Relay.

Even as ships pulled themselves into alignment and readied weapons, the Mass Relay deposited a fleet into the system.

The Turian fleet that disappeared 2 days ago once again appeared in the system.

(((P,ME)))

That's all for now.


End file.
